Please help us continue to provide you with free, quality journalism by turning off your ad blocker on our site.

Thank you for signing in.

If this is your first time registering, please check your inbox for more information about the benefits of your Forbes account and what you can do next!

I agree to receive occasional updates and announcements about Forbes products and services. You may opt out at any time.

I'd like to receive the Forbes Daily Dozen newsletter to get the top 12 headlines every morning.

Forbes takes privacy seriously and is committed to transparency. We will never share your email address with third parties without your permission. By signing in, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Statement.

Larry Ellison Reflects, Founder To Founder

Oracle hosted its Founder2Founder event during Oracle OpenWorld 2017, which brought together founders from Oracle’s global startup program, founders from Oracle acquisitions, and from throughout the Valley, for an intimate gathering at Larry Ellison’s residence. More than 45 guests were raptly engaged as the original founder sat down for more than 90 minutes of conversation and stories.

Among the many topics was how years ago, while starting Oracle and struggling with financial statements, Ellison hired the pizza delivery guy on the spot because he was an accounting major at UC Berkeley. “I was literally like, ‘You are an accounting major, can you make sense of this balance sheet?’ He could, and I said ‘Okay, you want a job?’ And hired him right there.”

"It was fascinating to hear someone move so quickly between the most complex technical topics, to the rawness of his own founding experience, to practical advice for startups today. I'm sure that none of the startup founders in attendance will forget it anytime soon,” said Derek Andersen, CEO of Startup Grind.

The conversations ranged from advice on how to scale your company to microbiological and molecular science to dangerous dinosaurs.

“I like learning and getting better at things,” said Ellison. “I love competing—and I love winning.” He went on to say making Oracle even more successful and proving any naysayers wrong is top of mind, joking that he thought about bidding on the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History and putting it in the Oracle lobby. “Yeah, a dinosaur. But a very dangerous dinosaur.”

“Forty years later, he is equally determined, focused and passionate—and it’s a great testimony to one of the greatest success stories ever in business,” said Reggie Bradford, Oracle senior vice president and global head of the startup ecosystem program. “The founders from our global startup program were elated and couldn’t stop talking about how Larry was so genuine, energetic, wise, and utterly entertaining.”

Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison hosted more than 45 startup founders at his home for conversation and stories.

Thomas Kletecka

A few other gems from Ellison include:

You can’t do everything. I used to think I was good at everything. Turned out not to be true.

Find people that are good at the things you’re not good at. Empower them.

No one is going to work for you if they don’t think you have their interest at heart.

Steve Jobs was crazed sometimes. It’s okay to be hard on people if they see all you want to do is win.

Startup life is Darwinian—there are many ways to die.

Some companies are great ideas, but the leader can’t hold onto the people. Some good ideas die and are born again in another mind or company.

Scaling from 15 to 50 people was brutal. If you can get to 50 employees it’s much easier to get to 500.

Looking at the data gets you better results. That’s why the machine is learning.

Early products are more like projects.

In the early days we thought the customer is not that smart, and we’re the smart ones. We were completely wrong.

Life is the pursuit of happiness.

I like learning and getting better at things. I love competing—I love winning the quarter, month, year.

Oracle is a collection of projects.

“We see Larry in keynotes, but to experience him firsthand was amazing and eye-opening,” said Charlie Davies, cofounder of iGeolise, and a member of Oracle’s Bristol-based startup program. “He is so energetic and authentic—and clearly brilliant. That was an amazing evening. What a cap on an excellent Oracle OpenWorld experience.”